This is one topic that I'd love to discuss but most of the time...I do get into a lotta arguments if i get to discuss this in a mixed group...Just a few thoughts that came to my heart....This argument is not to generalize all the girls..I m talking for myself...Most of the time the guys are the ones that have more pressure with the career than girls....If girls choose to study and come up they do but otherwise it is no big deal...But is this a good thing??...I find it rather depressing that it has to be this way instead of rejoicing at the fact that I can always sit back and relax with somebody else to do everything for me…the reason is that if given a choice it is always a woman who has to make a compromise on the career…. not a man.
For this reason however hard you try and scale greater heights in professional life it is possible that your efforts may not be recognized because you are always given an option to back out of your professional life, sit back and enjoy without having to work. As we move higher up in the corporate ladder, it is a man’s world out there, any small mistake on a part of the woman incapacitates her from being at the position where she is but if it is the same with a man, it is forgotten so easily. I don’t want to make woman seem like a character straight out of Sydney Sheldon’s book where the heroine is always a vulnerable character amidst treacherous men who try to bring her down all the time. There are a section of males in the society who do support their female colleagues coming up but there is always an identity that is associated with that of women. The identity of women itself is associated with that of a homemaker, caretaker, mother etc.,
Talking about being a mother…this has been running in my mind for quite some time especially after I came to the U.S of A….The world is coming to a state wherein most of the career options open for men are now opening up for women too. Now lets say we have a couple and both are very well off in their professional career and decide to have children…When they do have children it is the lady of the house who has to let go of the career atleast for some period of time in order to bring up the kid…else I can imagine the kid growing up all by itself in the daycare…with no special privileges of parent’s care that we all had. Will it be possible for a man to take off some time from his career to bring up the Kid? How many men in this kind of a society will be willing to be house husbands putting off the bread and butter burden on the woman or how many of them will be willing to go back to school letting a woman take care of their needs when they spend their life as a student? Will their ego ever let them do that??
Most of these questions would make potential arguments but these are not written with the intent of starting up an argument or I am not a feminist trying to fight for my rights…These kinds of thoughts just pop into my mind occasionally when I think about it. So any guys reading this no hard feelings :)
WISHING YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY TAMIL NEW YEAR AND VISHU
Update: With all due credits for my friend Lalitha who read this post before I could even post it...this is the excerpt of the discussion I had with her when I asked for her opinion about the same.
"I dont agree with your opinion on the guy taking care of the kid...more than a mere parent a child needs a mother..and a mother is more than just a parent...she is a source of everything for the child and no father can give the same kind of love, affection and strength that a mother can...and that I feel is the best part of womanhood.... being a mother...and about woman being identified as a home-maker...It was the past...now it is more of a personal bond between the couple that matters...men do chip in to do their best with the chores at home and women do a part of the bread winning for the family..its more of a mutual understanding..It is not right to think about that from a feministic point of view"...
I was just listening and dint have any thing to argue back...every word she told made perfect sense to me...and I realized sometimes I think too much from career point of view rather than from a family point of view....I was prejudiced when I had such thoughts...I wudn say I was completely wrong as any girl passing through this stage...enthusiastic about a good start to her professional life will have such thoughts in mind..but I must agree my way of looking at things have kinda changed after this discussion :)
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Feminism at its Best
Posted by
priti
at
1:48 PM
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
That was a good post. Very casual and realistic.
With Career and Family taking up all the time that we have, do we actually have the time to prioritise things? We dont have the time to decide (on who should earn and who should manage home etc)and we just jump into action, rightaway?
I always believe that Women are good at multi-tasking. Family, Office, Society.... you name it and there are woman who play great roles in all these places. This multi-tasking ability is something that makes me actually feel proud of being a woman.
And, as your friend Lalitha had rightly said, nowadays, men do actively take part in taking care of the home, daily chores and bringing up the kids etc, as much as women have started supporting the family's economy.
One of my Friends had emailed me his comments about this post and I thought it would be better to post it here...without his permission of course....:);)
"Oi
Though I knew that you updated your blog, I did not read it till now. You know my inclination towards simple and short things – even blog posts( and gf J)
Your blog made a good point, and rather than answering it; I would say that you have written a textbook-like question for the field of psychology/behavior sciences. Ask any girl/guy this question and depending on their answer – you know WHO they are.
This question reminds me of my school days – I think it was the class VIII days that I read a book by Will Durant, ‘The story of Philosophy.’
I know that you are pressed for time now, and also that you are looking for someone to punch. :P I will try to devote a section of our conversations to discuss this issue and that book. But let me remind you that it needs broad thinking and looking at the cause rather than the surface.
There is another way to discuss this issue – but it’s a long and curvy path and its often ‘the path less traveled.’ As they say, a beaten path is always easy – but it has heavy traffic.
Your boxing bag
praphul"
Great post priti.
Career n family...how do women attain a good balance between the two? Its not all that difficult tho, provided u have a balanced partner too.
Keshi.
Poorni - Thanks for the elaborate comments..rightly said about women and society...:)
Praphul - Will read that book when I get the "Time"...good choice though :)
Keshi - Yeah abs true...balance is the key yo life
Hey prits.. The world is changing.. More and more Men are proactively taking part in things they didnt before. But your friend made a great point. I think what is needed now is a positive attitude from people like you who see the good things happening and not crib on the bad things.. World is changing but we all knw change is always slow. Its up to the man and wife to make these decisions.
Post a Comment